


When Waiting Is Done On Rooftops

by mielipieli



Series: Birdflash [4]
Category: Batman (Comics), Titans (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Batman #56, M/M, Major Character Injury, Ric? Don't know him, no graphic depictions but it is stated explicitly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2019-07-08 11:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15929720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mielipieli/pseuds/mielipieli
Summary: Dick gets shot and Wally has to deal with that. Problem is, he doesn't quite know how.





	1. Wally West

**Author's Note:**

> Parts of this were inspired by Almondrose's "and we'll never be the same". Great fanfic of Steph and Tim's road trip. 
> 
> Lots of thanks to fangirlgem for betaing.

Wally is sitting at his kitchen table with Wallace, just hanging out, when his phone buzzes with a notification. He swipes right to look at it when he spots the news icon. It opens to a picture he wasn’t prepared to see. It’s of Dick - well, Nightwing - being shot in the head. 

Wally manages to change into his costume before he’s running to Gotham. He knows where Dick was shot. He saw that coffee shop Tim really likes in the lower left corner of the picture. So the photo was taken at Williams and 3rd. 

He stops on top of a building for a moment to get a good look at what is now a crime scene. He can’t see any of the Bats. They must already be at a hospital. Wally doesn’t know how long ago Dick was actually shot. Nor does he know where Dick is being treated. He didn’t really get around to reading the article. 

He’s running through all of Gotham’s hospitals for what seems like hours and might add up to a total of ten minutes. He can’t run very fast in a freaking hospital. In the end, Wally doesn’t know why he didn’t check Gotham General first. That’s where the bats usually go when Leslie’s clinic and the batcave aren’t going to cut it. 

They’re all in a waiting room together but Wally can’t stop right now because he feels the panic attack coming. Which is weird. He hasn’t had a panic attack in years. Instead he stops on the rooftop and takes a deep fluttering breath.

Donna. He needs Donna. He also needs to call Donna. His hands are shaking but Donna has called him 20 times while he was moving too fast for his phone to register calls, so he only needs to swipe right on the notification. 

“Wally! Thank god! Are you alright?”, Donna starts immediately.

“I’m fine. I…”, Wally can’t figure out how to breathe. He can’t get enough air. 

“Hey, Wally. It’s okay. He’s in surgery. Gotham General has some of the best neurologists in the country”, Wally can hear the fear and pain she’s trying to suppress and somehow that helps. He slowly gets his breathing back under control. “You’re on the Gotham General rooftop right now?”

Someone probably tweeted about him being there: “Yeah.”

“Okay. Roy and Garth are on the Watchtower. They’ll be at your location in a minute or two. I’ll stay on the phone until then.”

She asks him questions about his improving relationship with Wallace, his dinner yesterday evening with Barry and Iris and everything else carefully removed from the Bats and the people he’s lost because of Flashpoint. 

Garth and Roy materialize in front of him and Wally forgets to say anything for a moment. 

“Wally?”, Donna asks.

“They just got here. Thank you.”

“I’ll join you in a minute”, she says and hangs up. 

Roy hugs Wally as soon as his phone is back in his pocket. They talked about a lot when they were both in the Sanctuary. Wally told him about how Dick remembered him as a friend but not their relationship of ten years and Roy told him about how he’d started remembering Lian and had checked himself into the sanctuary before he could do something stupid. 

Wally still felt guilty for not telling Roy about Lian but he wasn’t sure that would have been a good idea, either. It had been a lose-lose situation and Roy had said that he doesn’t blame Wally for his decision. Roy is the only one other than the therapist Wally had told about his relationship with Dick so far, though Donna probably knows and Garth might, too. That’s the problem with observant friends. 

Roy gently lets go of him: “I called BC. She’s going to get Huntress and they’re going to patrol the city.”

Wally realizes something: “Red Robin and Spoiler probably don’t know what’s going on. N gave me Red’s emergency number.” Wally has his phone against his ear before Roy and Garth can say anything in reply.

The call is answered on the second ring: “Tim Drake.”

“Hey, Tim, it’s Wally.”

“What’s wrong?”, Tim immediately replies in a slightly panicked voice and there’s uneasy voices starting to talk around him.

“Dick is in surgery at Gotham General”, Wally says. He doesn’t really want to use the words ‘head’ or ‘shot’ right now.

“We’ll be there in a few minutes.” Tim hangs up. Wally isn’t quite sure how they’re going to get here in a few minutes but maybe Tim has the transporter codes.

“He said they’ll be here in a few minutes”, Wally says to Roy and Garth who had been talking in hushed voices and neither of them ask who ‘he’ and ‘they’ are even though Wally isn’t even completely sure how many people the ‘they’ includes. He has a feeling it’s not just Tim and Steph.

They wait in silence for Donna or ‘them’ to arrive. Donna gets there first. She hugs all of them quickly and asks them to update her on the situation. They do. Twenty seconds. Wally counts. Forty-three seconds later Cassie Sandsmark lands on the roof with Stephanie Brown in her arms and Bart - freaking Bart - speeds up the side with Tim Drake.

Wally kind of loses his shit and lifts Bart off the ground with his hug: “I thought you were gone! I thought you were gone for good! Oh my god!” Bart is back. Bart is back and that might mean his kids could come back, too. Also, Bart. Bart is alive. Bart isn’t lost in the speedforce forever. Wally feels like he’s crushing him but Bart holds on just as tightly and they both quiet down within what must be milliseconds but they hug until a full second is over.

When they’re about to slow down again, Wally sees the other Titans staring in surprise. Roy has taken a step back because that’s what he does when he’s surprised. Tim, Cassie and Steph also look surprised but to a lesser extent. They look more like the fast movement activated their fight or flight instincts.

“Guys, this is Bart and Cassie”, Wally introduces the two his friends probably don’t know.

“How do you know me?”, Cassie asks, looking more at Bart than Wally.

Bart shrugs: “Old universe.”

Cassie doesn’t look like she likes that explanation but she does seem to accept it. Garth nods at both of them, while Donna sends them sad smiles and Roy raises his hand with a ‘hi’. 

“What happened.” Tim’s voice is tight and controlled and maybe a bit angry and Wally feels a wave of sympathy. 

There is no nice way to break this to him. Dick was shot in the head. It isn’t a graze. No matter how lucky they are, this is going to have lasting effects. And Dick could just as well be dead by the time they get downstairs. Wally breathes through the returning wave of panic. 

Donna is the one who answers after two whole seconds of silence: “Tim, Dick got shot in the head. He’s in surgery and your family is in the waiting room.”

Cassie clasps her hand in front of her mouth. Steph’s face goes slack. Tim looks like he’s calculating the odds of all possible outcomes. And Bart is staring at Wally with his eyebrows pulled together and his eyes full of sadness. Wally quickly looks away.

Roy clears his throat after a few moments of only the sounds of cars floating around them: “Tim, Steph. Garth and I are going to go sit down in the waiting room. Would you like to join us?” They leave the rooftop wordlessly and leave Cassie, Bart, Donna and him behind. 

Donna turns to Cassie: “Cassie, this must be a lot. I know you decided to go with the others but it would probably be best if you go home for now. I will let you know once we have more information but Tim and Steph will most likely want to stay in Gotham for a while.”

Cassie nods and hugs both Donna and Bart quickly and tightly before flying off. Donna and Bart exchange a few looks and Wally feels like they’ve met before. Well, that Donna has met Bart before. He knows that Bart knows Donna. He also feels like shit and like he wants to start crying. He speeds into the waiting room before Donna and Bart can finish their wordless conversation, lets himself fall into a chair next to Cass and pulls his knees up to his chest.


	2. When the Waiting Room Empties - Wally West

Sitting in the waiting room is somehow worse than standing on the rooftop. Cass has touched her knee to his and it makes him feel a little better. It’s like he’s connected to the world through that single point of contact. His brain is going ten miles a minute and his leg is bouncing so fast, it’s basically vibrating. 

 

Wally ignores Damian’s annoyed glare in favor of thinking through what parts of Dick’s brain might have been injured. Yeah, not exactly a pleasant way to spend his time. Especially since it’s moving so slowly. If Dick dies in there, Wally isn’t entirely sure he won’t travel back in time to prevent it. That’s a problem.

 

He’s already justifying it in his head. It’s only a couple of hours. It’s just one person. It won’t change that much. He knows that’s wrong. It’s so fucking wrong. The last time one of them changed something is the reason he can’t call Dick his  _ husband. _ The reason Jay isn’t here. The reason the JSA has never existed in this universe. 

 

Wally gets an amazing HQ experience of the moment Roy decides he needs to do something to help Wally. It’s a fight between pain for Wally, pain for Dick and annoyance at Wally. Then, time somehow speeds up and Wally’s in the hallway outside the private waiting room with a water and sobbing helplessly. 

 

There’s a familiar calloused hand taking the water from him and then he’s sobbing into Roy’s chest instead of the air. He’s shaking violently and somehow he feels like he’s watching himself from the outside. Through all the tears and sobs Wally is thinking about how he should have told Dick and how everything suddenly feels so empty. 

 

“Sssh”, Roy says and holds Wally tightly. “It’s okay. I know it hurts but it’s going to be be okay.” He repeats it over and over and over and over and over.

 

At some point they’re sitting on the floor with their backs against the wall and Wally leaning on Roy’s shoulder. At some point Wally stops sobbing and then even later the tears stop flowing and Wally’s so fucking  _ exhausted. _

 

Roy’s arm goes up to his own eyes and when Wally looks up, Roy’s eyes are red, too. His sunglasses have long been discarded. Then, Roy presses a tissue into Wally’s hand and when that one is full of snot and tears, he hands him another one. 

* * *

When Dick is finally out of the surgery, the doctors are neither sure he’ll survive nor that he’ll ever wake up if he does. They don’t say it like that, of course, but it’s still very obvious. Especially when you’re a regular at hospitals.

 

That’s the point where no one knows what to do anymore. The waiting period before was finite. This one is very open ended. Do you go home now? Do you stay until something happens? Neither are very appealing options.

 

Suddenly, Donna is standing in front of him: “Come on, Wally. We’re going to the Clocktower. Red Robin or Batgirl will tell us if anything changes.” 

 

Wally looks up at Donna. There’s a steely resolve behind her outstretched hand and kind face. Wally won’t be able to change her mind about this, no matter how much he wants to stay. He could use some sleep anyway, not that he’ll catch any. 

 

Roy and Garth are already waiting for them in a car Wally has never seen before. How did Wally completely miss them leaving the waiting room? Roy is sitting behind the wheel and Garth on the passenger’s side. Donna pulls Wally into the back and sits down in the middle. She pulls him against her once their seatbelts are both on and Wally can feel more tears coming up. 

 

He doesn’t sob this time. He’s too exhausted for that. Instead, he just lets them wash down his face and leans into the familiar comfort of Donna’s shoulder under his head and her arm around his shoulders. 

 

Wally separates reluctantly from her once they pull into the underground garage of the Clocktower. He looks at Donna and only now realizes she was crying just as much as he was. She smiles at him sadly before he gets out of the car. 

* * *

“Roy, if you say one more word, you can join Dick in the hospital!”, Donna’s shouting wakes him.

 

Huh, he didn’t think he’d ever fall asleep. Apparently he did. And apparently there’s a lot of tension. Wally reluctantly pushes himself up. He really doesn’t want to deal with angry Donna or annoying Roy or more quiet than usual Garth. 

 

They’re standing in the open kitchen. Roy and Donna, at least. Roy has that look on his face he always gets when he’s sabotaging himself. Yeah, that’s a specific look. Donna looks like she hasn’t gotten even a minute of sleep. Which means she’s high-strung to the extreme. Self-sabotaging Roy and easily-annoyed Donna. Not a good combination. Garth is sitting on one of the barstools and doesn’t even try to interfere with the upcoming death match. God, they’re a fucking mess. 

 

Wally puts two fingers in his mouth and whistles as loudly as he can. Donna and Roy glare at him. Garth just turns around and raises an eyebrow.

 

“What are you fighting about?”, Wally asks as casually as he can manage. 

 

Donna and Roy exchange a look and both seem to relax a bit.

 

Donna shrugs: “Don’t worry about it.”   
  


Wally would say he didn’t mean to play the ‘be careful I’m vulnerable’ card except he totally did, because they don’t need Roy to have any broken bones right now.

 

Breakfast is tense. They’re all shoveling food into their mouths without tasting anything. Wally feels sick. He would rather not eat anything at all right now but if he goes another hour without food, he’ll collapse. Roy periodically looks at Wally’s food and when Wally stops eating - not because he’s not hungry anymore but because he’s going to vomit if he puts one more thing in his mouth - he looks like he’s going to protest. Donna throws him a look.

 

Instead of saying anything, Roy gets up and takes a few of the speedster protein bars out to stuff into his pockets. Then, he quietly goes back to staring at his half full bowl of cereal before emptying it into the trash can. 

* * *

There’s no new information when they get to the hospital. Wally knows that’s probably a good thing. Usually a severe brain injury will result in several days of just trying to keep the patient alive. So, no news is good news for now.

 

Only Tim, Bruce and Cass are still in the waiting room from the previous evening. Clark and Diana have recently arrived, though. They seem to be trying to convince those last three stragglers - well, just Bruce since the other two are sleeping where they’re sitting - to go home and catch some sleep. When Diana spots them, her eyes light up a bit. 

 

“See, Batman. The Titans are back. They’ll stay here while you three catch some sleep and you can trust them to call you if anything happens”, she says.

 

Bruce grumbles and crosses his arms. 

 

“Bats, if you don’t leave on your own accord, we will carry you home. Try to keep some of your dignity.”

 

Bruce’s entire body seems to collapse in on itself, all the tension seeps out: “I don’t care about my dignity”, he whispers. 

 

Diana kneels down in front of him: “I know. But you do need to get some sleep and some proper food. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”

 

Bruce nods and gets up. He walks over to Tim and Cass and gently pets Tim’s head. Tim looks up at him in confusion, lifting his head from Cass’s shoulder and therefore waking her up.

 

“We’re going home for a while.”

 

Cass gives Wally a tight squeeze as she walks outside and Diana exchanges a few words with Donna in Themysciran Greek before following the three. It’s only Wally, Clark and her who are still standing around in the middle of the room when the door closes. Roy and Garth have already settled into the chairs. Garth’s eyes are closed but Roy watches all three of them intently. 

 

“Fuck”, Wally says. Not even Clark complains about the swear. 

 

“Wally, I…”, he says instead and Wally looks into his face. 

 

He remembers their wedding. Dick’s and his wedding. Clark cried his eyes out in the first row and later held an impromptu speech. It was kind of weird how close they all were to Clark even though he never had a protege on their team. Actually, maybe that was the reason they were so close to him. He was always an independent third party and he was good at staying neutral.

 

Clark’s arms close around him with all their Kryptonian hunkiness. Wally collapses into the hug safe in the knowledge that Clark will hold him upright: “He’ll get through this. You both will. He’s so strong and there’s so many people to help him”, Clark whispers. Wally nods, even though he doesn’t necessarily believe him. 


	3. When the night is long and the morning longer - Roy Harper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Dick still in the Hospital, there's other things to take care of.

“...Hullo?”, Roy asked the phone that was rudely interrupting what had been supposed to become five hours of uninterrupted sleep.

 

“What the fuck happened?”, asks Jason’s panicked voice.

 

Roy is wide awake in an instant: “Oh my god, Jason! Where were you?” He’d been trying to reach Jason on his burner phones all week. 

 

“What. Happened.”

 

Roy rubs his eyes with his free hand: “It’s Dick. He…”

 

“Fuck”, Jason breathes.

 

It takes Roy a moment to realize what he must think: “Jason, no. That’s not... “ He takes a breath. “He’s not dead. But he... “ He swallows, “It’s not good. He got shot in the head.”

 

There’s slow and deep breathing on the other side: “Who?”

 

“KGBeast.”

 

“How bad is it?”, Jason asks after a few seconds of silence and his voice is full of apprehension.

 

“We don’t really know yet, you know? He’s slowly beginning to wake up and he’s shown signs of responding to all sensory input but he didn’t seem to recognize anyone and his temporal lobe was hit the hardest, the doctors said. And there could still be complications and he has a 50% chance of getting epilepsy if he actually makes it and we don’t even know how his whether his speech will be affected and…” Roy’s breathing is getting faster and out of control.

 

There’s pictures flashing in his mind that he’s been seeing all week. Pictures of a different waiting room. A waiting room in Star. Connor. They were waiting on how his surgery would go. It was a bullet, too. Not in the head but it carried a corrosive that  _ did  _ cause brain damage. Except Roy doesn’t know a Connor. These are not his memories and he knows that but they definitely feel like his.

 

“Roy, breathe”, Jason says suddenly and Roy actually stops breathing for a moment as he’s trying to process what Jason is trying to tell him. “Where are you right now?”

 

“Clocktower.”

 

“Are you alone?”

 

Roy shakes his head: “The other Titans are here, too. They’re sleeping.”   
  


“Okay. Go to Donna. I need to go but I’m taking the first flight I can get.”

 

“Where are you?”, he presses out through his still too fast breathing. 

 

“I’m in Paris right now.”

 

Lots of flights. That’s good. Weird, though. Bruce has been running facial recognition on every image he can get his hands on. Roy tunes out into his thoughts and completely misses what Jason says next: “Hmm?”

 

“Go to Donna, please?”, Jason sounds concerned. 

 

“I don’t…”

 

“Please?”

 

Roy nods.

 

“I have to go. I’ll see you in two days, tops.”

 

Jason hangs up before Roy can say anything more - not that he could actually get anything out. He’s starting to shake and tears are starting to form in his eyes and there’s a pain in his stomach because a sob wants out.

 

Donna wakes up when he opens the door to her room. She’s staring at him as he steps closer to her, looking really scared. She must think that something happened. Roy quickly shakes his head and Donna seems to understand. Her entire face softens and she pulls him down into a hug. Roy collapses onto her and cries into her shirt.

 

Her being here helps. Donna always helps. Just like Dick helps and Garth helps and Wally helps. There’s another flash of memories.

 

_ He’s in the waiting room of a hospital and he’s worried sick. It’s just an appendectomy, he tells himself but he’s so scared that something will go wrong. He’s so scared something will happen to Lian. He watches Garth walk in, look around, then walk over when he spots Roy. Garth sits down next to him silently. He doesn’t say a word, he doesn’t take out the files he definitely needs to read because Garth always has stuff he needs to read. He just stares into space with Roy. When a nurse finally comes to tell Roy that the surgery went well, Garth gets up, gives Roy a hug and leaves. _

 

Donna is holding onto him a bit too tightly. He’s going to have some bruising in the morning. It doesn’t really matter. Donna needs to hold onto someone right now, just like Roy needed to wake her at 3AM. He drifts off at some point when he’s too tired to keep crying.

 

* * *

 

Roy makes a decision as he’s waking up and pulls Wally aside when they’re just done with breakfast.

 

“What’s up?”, Wally asks. He looks tired. 

 

“I’ve been getting a lot of memory flashes.” Wally stares at him for a moment without any recognition, then seems to get it. “I want to get an MRI and I would like you to accompany me.”

 

“On the Watchtower or an unrelated medical facility?”

 

There’s a part of Roy that’s surprised by the lack of hesitation Wally shows. The Titans always feel familiar and new at the same time. Because of the Flashpoint. Because of Mister Twister and Lilith having them forget each other. It feels weird to be so close to people. It feels weird that it feels weird.

 

“Watchtower.”

 

Wally nods: “That’s probably better. If there’s some Speed Force energy goofing around in there”, he points to Roy’s head, “then a Hospital wouldn’t detect it.”

 

“I wanted to go as soon as possible.”

 

“Sure. Five minutes? Ten? Half an hour?”

 

Roy doesn’t quite know how to react to any of this: “Half an hour should be fine.”

 

Wally smiles at him and returns to the breakfast table to chat with Donna and Garth. Roy looks after him. It really shouldn’t feel so weird to be given the help he asks for. It does. He can imagine what Wally would do if he said that out loud. He’d get that look of “I’ve personally failed you” and hover in Roy’s space in that “I don’t know if I’m allowed to hug you right now” way. Like he’s dealing with a frightened animal that hasn’t been acclimated to humans, yet.

 

“Fuck”, Roy whispers. He might not be fully accustomed to normal human relationships anymore. That’s a depressing thought.

 

* * *

 

Apparently, his head is fine. Vic was, however, able detect Source Energy and Speed Force. Wally and him are now staring at the tablet in confusion.

 

“Could you please not?”, Roy asks.

 

They both look up like they forgot he was there. They probably did. Wally cocks his head: “Could we not what?”

 

Roy gestures at them frantically: “Whatever it is that you’re doing! Not telling me what you’re seeing.”   
  


“Oh, shit”, Wally says. “I really didn’t mean to.”

 

Roy knows he didn’t. Wally’s brain is a problem like that sometimes. None of them are actually sure whether he’s always had ADHD or whether it’s an effect of being a speedster that presents very similarly to ADHD. Point is, hyperfocus. He sometimes forgets the things around himself.

 

Vic looks at Roy apologetically: “Okay, see these?”, he points at the upper three of of six graphs. “These are Source Energy readings. Left one’s normal, middle yours, right people affected by source energy. The lower ones are for the Speed Force, same principle, except the right is a Speedster.”

 

Roy hates dealing with extradimensional forces. He’s not stupid, he’s actually pretty smart. Extradimensional forces, though, actually can’t be understood by human beings. Wally told him as much. Roy makes sure he’s up to date on the things he can understand but it’s not actually a lot. 

 

“We don’t really have a lot of data for either but I’m hoping we can make some sense of your readings by comparing them to these.”

 

“It looks like they’re higher than they should be”, Roy notes as he looks over them. Even basic information needs to be discussed. 

 

“Well, they’re higher than any non-metahuman’s readings we have. I honestly don’t know what that means for you.” Vic’s eye drifts to the clock. “I need to get on something but I’ll analyse the data, do some digging and tell you what I find.”

 

“Thanks, man.”

 

“No worries.” Vic smiles sadly. “Say hello to Dick from me.”

 

It’s like a weight that was hanging over the room the entire time drops and falls on them. Roy feels his stomach contract a bit. Neither Wally nor Roy say anything for a while after Vic has left the room. 

  
  



	4. When Nothing Works As It Should - Bruce Wayne

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce tries to make arrangements.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is really short because I struggle with writing from Bruce's perspective.

“Hello, Bruce”, Zatanna says as she answers his call. 

 

“Zatanna, I need to ask you a few questions.”

 

Zatanna is the kind of person who would usually berate him for his bad manners. She would say something like ‘Oh, haven’t seen you in ages. How are you doing?’ in her most sarcastic voice. She doesn’t. Instead she asks: “What can I do for you?”

 

“Is there a way to heal memory loss due to brain damage?”

 

Zatanna lets out a long breath: “I… Bruce, I honestly don’t know. I don’t think there’s any healing spells that could. There’s always Lazarus Pits and deals with devils. But those prices…”

 

“I know.” He knows she was going to say too high and Bruce knows that, kind of. He knows that. Except that if a deal with the devil is the only way to make Dick be okay again, he will sell his soul in an instant. 

 

“I really don’t....” She stops herself. “There’s one person who might be able to help but you’d have to ask her yourself.”   
  


“Raven”, Bruce had considered her abilities before.

 

Zatanna sighs: “I honestly don’t know if she could. Her healing magic is incredibly strong but it’s also very hard on her. I don’t know if brain damage is within her abilities.”

 

“Thank you, Zatanna. I’ll speak to her.”   
  


“Bruce?”, her voice is soft now.

 

“Yes?”   
  


“Don’t jump to conclusions. Brain damage is tricky. Don’t do anything stupid.”

 

“Of course.”

* * *

Bruce can only go to the Hospital at night because he needs to go there as Batman. There have been ten ambushes already. He had Clark take care of all of them. As soon as Gotham General will let him and Doctor Mid-Nite tells him it’s okay, Bruce will have Dick moved to the Watchtower.

 

“Oh, yeah, dude. Donna was pissed.” It’s Roy’s voice that Bruce hears from Dick’s hospital room. Bruce looks into the room so Dick doesn’t see him but Roy does. Roy nods: “I’ll be back in a minute.”

 

Bruce waits for him to step outside and shuts the door: “How is he today?” 

 

“He remembered my face, if not my name. He’s been awake for a while now, too.” He takes a breath: “He’s really struggling with his speech, though.”   
  


Dick has been showing symptoms of Broca’s aphasia since he woke up. The doctors all tell them to wait. 

 

“Thank you”, Bruce says. He wouldn’t call himself a fan of Roy Harper in any way but he doesn’t need to like his son’s friends to appreciate what they do for him. 

 

Roy nods, seeming slightly more stiff than before and heads back into the room. Bruce enters after him.

 

“Good Morning, Dick.”

 

Dick stares at him completely dumbfounded. 

 

“Bruce”, Roy supplies before Bruce can.

 

Dick’s fingers start tapping out a nervous rhythm.

 

“Where was I?”, Roy asks Dick.

 

Dick moves his lips to form different shapes before landing on one: “D… Do-na ...w-as… m-add. Dona was mad.” After working through the sentence slowly, he says it again, still quite slow and with lengthened vowels but fluently.

 

Bruce can hear his own heart break.

* * *

“Ma’am, we have top of the line technology and magic. We can transport him safely”, Doctor Mid-Nite says to the Gotham General doctor.

 

Bruce stands there with crossed arms. After Raven said that there is a chance she can help Dick regain his memory - at least in parts - Bruce has immediately begun his efforts to move Dick to the watchtower. There’s no way GG would let some magic user - even one in the JLA reserves - treat one of their patients. Unluckily, they don’t really want him to get moved, either. 

 

“Teleportation is not safe transportation.”

 

Bruce clears his throat: “Doctor Finnigan, there have been multiple attempts to attack this hospital. With Nightwing staying in treatment here, you’re endangering your other patients.”

 

Doctor Finnigan looks like she wants to say something but Doctor Mid-Nite beats her to it: “He’s stable, he’s awake for longer periods of time, he’s clearly ready to be moved.”   
  


“Fine”, Doctor Finnigan declares. “I will talk to our director.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

Bruce sighs when she’s walked around the corner. He understands the wariness around things people don’t know much about - like the JLA is, in the end. What he doesn’t understand is why that wariness makes  _ them _ want to do the opposite of whatever it is  _ Bruce _ wants them to do. 

 

“Batman”, Bruce turns to Doctor Mid-Nite. “I’ll prepare everything for the transfer and inform you when we’re ready.”

 


	5. When you're together, yet so alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garth and Donna deal with the event of HiC.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it's been so long. I was busy with uni but now I'm back, baby!

Garth is decidedly not okay. He’s screamed and cried and now he’s sitting in a bar with his head on the table.

 

“Sir”, someone asks. Garth looks up to see the bartender stand next to him. “Can I call someone to pick you up?” 

 

The bar is empty except for the two of them. “It’s fine. I can walk home on my own.”

 

“Sir, you had  _ a lot _ .”

 

“I’m Atlantean, I can hold my liquor.” He gets up and has to reach for the table to stabilize himself.

 

“Please. Sit down. Isn’t there anyone i can call for you?”

 

Donna. There’s always Donna. But he doesn’t want to burden her. She’s all he has right now, though. At least on the surface. It feels like the universe has it out for Titans this year. Garth lets out a sob. 

 

“Did something happen to you?”, she sounds so sad for him that it doesn’t feel invasive. 

 

“Two of my best friends died and another has brain damage.” 

 

“My condolences.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

She’s quiet for a moment: “It sounds like you should be with friends and family.” It’s said very carefully. Like she knows that there might not be anyone. 

 

“They have their own problems.” 

 

“I think”, she takes a breath. “That if they really care about you, it will be a relief that you call them even though you’re in a bad place.” 

 

It makes sense. He knows it does. That’s why he starts fumbling for his phone. 

 

“Garth? Are you alright? I was looking everywhere for you!”

 

“I’m… in a bar? I honestly don’t know exactly where.” 

 

The bartender holds out her hand.

 

Garth nods at her: “Donna, I’ll give the phone to the bartender.” 

 

“Hello”, she says. “No, he’s just pretty drunk… Yes, 135 31st street…”, she looks a bit confused. “New York… Thank you.” The phone call apparently ends because she hands Garth back his phone. “Your friend will be here in 5 minutes.”

 

Garth nods: “I’m Garth, by the way.”

 

“Lucy.”

 

It actually only takes Donna two minutes. She walks into the bar like a whirlwind - like Wally would have - and pulls Garth into a hug. “I was so worried”, she whispers into his hair. 

 

She doesn’t have to explain. Every time Garth gets a phone call, he expects to be told bad news. Every time someone doesn’t answer their phone on the first ring, he expects to never talk to them again. He was supposed to meet up with Wally this morning. He called him five times.

 

Garth sags against Donna and suppresses a sob.

 

“I know”, she whispers and then carefully pulls back. She turns to Lucy. “Has he paid, yet?”

 

Lucy smiles: “He paid after every drink. Very politely.”

 

“Thank you for getting him to call me.”

 

“How do you know I didn’t call you on my own?”, Garth protests weakly.

 

Donna sends him a look. 

 

“He didn’t look like he should be on his own right now”, Lucy says. 

 

“I don’t think either of us should.”

 

* * *

 

Even though Garth’s physiology hadn’t kept him from getting drunk, it did keep him from getting a hangover, as he discovers upon waking up. 

 

Donna has already gotten up. She’s standing in the kitchen, fully dressed and making omelettes with a grim expression. 

 

“Morning”, Garth announces.

 

“I don’t know what the hell you were thinking”, she says it very calmly but Garth knows her well enough to see the anger in the way she’s holding herself, not looking at him, staring intently at the eggs.

 

He doesn’t actually need her to feel fucking terrible. Roy, his friend who fought against his addiction for such a long time, died and Garth honored his legacy by getting shitfaced. Why? Why did he do this? He’s never hated himself so much in his entire life. The strength of the Titans has always been that they stick together in times of need. In this time of need Garth hadn’t only abandoned Donna, he actually made her worry about him.

 

Garth wants to say that he’s sorry, wants to ask her for forgiveness and fight against his instinct to keep his emotions to himself. He doesn’t. Instead, when he opens his mouth, he starts sobbing. He feels like his legs can’t carry him, like they lack all strength, like the pain is too heavy for his muscles. 

 

Donna catches him. She wraps her arms around him and joins in, crying into his shoulder. Garth isn’t sure which one of them is carrying their weight. It can’t be him. He wouldn’t be able to stand on his own, right now. He doesn’t think Donna would, either. Their weight is suspended between them and Garth really doesn’t want to let go. 

 

* * *

 

The eggs, which Donna had - thank, Poseidon - taken off the stove before their crying session, are completely cold by the time they get around to eating them. Neither of them make any move to reheat them. Garth is pretty sure his taste buds have decided that he doesn’t need them anymore. Everything tastes like cardboard and he has to fight against the urge to push his plate away. 

 

“I want to visit Dick”, he announces once he’s finally managed to swallow his last bite. 

 

Garth quickly looks down, when Donna looks ready to cry again. She clears her throat: “I’d like that.”

 

She pushes herself up, using her hands as if her legs need the help, and collects everything from the dining table. Garth gulps down the contents of his glass of water in an attempt to ground himself. 

 

They’ve died. They’ve  _ all _ died. They’ve fallen apart, they’ve had times when they didn’t talk to each other. Garth has never felt like the world was this lost before. He can safely say that the hour he spent waiting for Wally, yesterday, increasingly sure that something terrifying must have happened, was one of the worst ones of his life. The moment Wally’s phone was answered by Clark was somehow worse. 

 

Garth starts crying again. This time Donna doesn’t come to hug him. He doesn’t actually want her to. He doesn’t want to cry at all. He wants to deal with this, with his emotions, silently. He doesn’t want to feel like everything can pierce his composure like a needle letting the air out of a balloon.


End file.
